In The Gloaming
by ElleThom
Summary: How far will Peter go for the woman he loves? Where is the line between science and conscience?
1. Chapter 1

**So here it is Spring break, and since i am too broke to go to Florida, figured I'd write a Fringe fic. Hopefully this is something i can finish before the premiere, but have no fear i know where this one is **going!

No Own, No Sue, I'm too poor and all you would get JJ is a whole lotta student loans, but hey if you want them....

XXXXXXXXXXX

The bright flowers seemed out of place, cheap somehow against the grey sky. The low hanging clouds bespoke her mood. In another life, in another world she would be a woman who would shed tears openly and without fear of seeming weak.

But this was not that world.

In this world, she stood stoically rigid in her rightful place beside the casket. There were other mourners glaring at the grieving woman with disdain, but she refused to even grace them with a wither of an emotion. She held onto her emotions as she had been trained over so many years in the Marines . He would not have wanted her to become a blubbering stuttering mess. He expected so much from her, and she refused to let him down even in his death.

A man seemed to glare at her from a tree on the far edge of the cemetery. His black pea coat tightly bound around his lean form. Olivia wracked her brain to place him, some familiarity in his feature seemed to lie just outside of her memory. His continued stare began to make her uncomfortable, but she put it aside as the uniformed men placed the flag in her hands.

"We're so sorry for your loss Mrs. Scott."

XxX

Peter watched her as she played the grieving widow. "You were always the strong one Liv." He mumbled to himself as he watched her accept the flag into her hands. He wondered about the differences, the fracturing of the time line here. Things were different but still so similar.

He contemplated how to approach her, how to get to her in a way not to spook her. The Olivia he knew would shoot first and ask questions later. Peter had no intention of trying out the health care services over here. He had a job to do and every intention of completing his mission.

The sun began to peak out of the clouds as the mourners began to leave the gravesite. Olivia lingered beside her sister and a small group of what could only be family. She kept looking back at him as if she knew him. Peter didn't bother hiding; he had to get to her as soon as possible.

It was she who approached him. He stood stock still as she walked toward his perch by the oak tree.

XxX

"Do we know each other?" She asked him.

"Sort of…" he nodded ambiguously.

"Did you serve with John? Were you a friend of his?"

"I was never even a fan. Listen, Olivia, I know this seems weird but I promise we sort of know each other really well."

She had grown weary of the cloak and dagger routine, "You've been glaring at me all through my husband's funeral as if I owe you money. I don't have a whole lot of time for BS, so why don't you tell me why you are here so I can get back to my family."

Peter glanced around at the now empty cemetery before continuing. "What do you know about alternate realities?"

"I read The Dark Tower series, but like I said Mister-"

"Peter. Peter Bishop."

"Mr. Bishop. I just lost my husband. I have a house full of well wishers to attend to, so if this little story has a point, I suggest you reach it soon." Olivia tapped her watch for effect.

"Listen, Mrs. Scott, I came a long way to be here, can you at least grant me a few minutes here? Some of what I am about to throw at you can't be digested in the span of a few moments. I realize you are grieving, but where I came from, you—Things are different."

She made to leave but he grabbed her arm.

"Liv, wait. Please. What do I have to say to prove to you that I am here on the most serious of reasons."

She continued to walk away from him shoulders hunched and set.

"I know John didn't die the conquering hero." He tried

"Try again Mr. Bishop," Olivia threw over her shoulder. "Everyone knows he died in a lame ass car crash on his way to the store." The tears were beginning to burn in the corners of her eyes as she stormed toward her car. He had begun to follow behind her, his long legs matching her stride pace for pace.

"Liv, I know that your husband had questionable loyalties. I know there were some serious questions surrounding his contacts" Peter spoke quickly.

Olivia whipped around, her gun aimed at Peter. "You start spreading rumors about my husband and-"

Peter raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'm not here to hurt you Liv, I would never want that for you. I just really, really need your help."

Olivia lowered her weapon "There's a bar not far from Harvard—"

"Barney's yeah I know it."Peter nodded slowly.

"Ten o'clock, tonight. If you aren't there when I get there I am going to go home and finish my mourning without your fairy tale."

As she drove off, Peter let out the breath he had been holding. She could have shot him, and had it been his Liv, she probably would have. Things were really different here.


	2. Chapter 2

The bar held the same ambiance as Peter had expected. The two of them had often come here to hold drinking contests where the only winner was the one sober enough to hail a cab.

She was even sitting in their usual spot, an observation that made the blood run icy in his veins.

"I was about to leave," she threw at him from around a shimmering glass of scotch.

"And yet you are still here." He offered taking the empty seat across from her.

"You here to talk or to watch me drink?"

He hailed the waitress and requested a round for the two of them. "I'm here to ask you for your help."

Olivia finished her drink just as the waitress set down her fresh one.. "What's all this about alternate realities?" She downed her second before the waitress could even leave and signaled for a third. "And what do you know about my husband's life anyway?"

"I know enough that you are looking for answers. I can't guarantee that I can get all of them for you, but I know where to start."

"Look, I know you work for a version of the Fringe division here. I know you are more than aware of what I mean when I say a coming storm. Three years ago, I'm wandering around the globe poking my head in and out of any hole that will pay off. Then, someone convinces me that there is more going on than how big the payoff is." Peter empties his own glass and searches the room for the waitress. "That person was you. "

"That is a lovely story Mr. Bishop, but I don't know you. If what met in that universe, wouldn't we have met in this one as well?" Olivia pondered for a second. "And, for that matter I am assuming that is=f you are here looking for my help, then I can only assume that my alter self is no longer available."

Peter's eyes flashed a quick rage, gone again in a flash before Olivia could assess the meaning. "Yeh," he nodded "You could say that."

"Then wouldn't you be the enemy Mr. Bishop? I mean if you are from the other side why should I help you? Theoretically of course."

Peter loved the gleam in her eye. It was the same as his Liv would get when she got wind of a new case. For a moment he thought he would lose it in front of her, and he prayed she did not here the catch in his voice when he spoke. "I'm not the enemy here Liv. But this is bigger than you and me. I need you to come. I think we have figured out a way to end all of this."

He watched her down another shot and wiggled her hand at the waitress for another. "So I am in danger is that it? And what? You were sent here to save me?"

"Where I am from, John Scott was a traitor and you two never married." He could tell that her attention had been piqued. Peter kicked himself for waiting this long to capture her focus.

"So, he's dead there too then." Olivia's disappointment was evident enough for Peter to feel an odd jealousy. "I still don't see how this is of any pertinence to m situation Mr. Bishop. Why would anyone want to kill me?"

"Because that's how things are right now Liv. That's what things have come to. If they can off you then there is no chance of our fixing this." Peter leaned closer into her space, "They will do anything to ensure that the war goes on. Rather than end it, they would rather have a winner."

"I've had enough." Olivia pushed her glass to the far corner of the table and grabbed for her coat. "I doubt if you would understand losing someone you love deeply Mr. Bishop, but I just lost my husband, and all of this is a bit much for me. Thank you for the excuse to come out and drink, but I have a life to put back together." She threw a twenty dollar bill on the table before turning to leave.

Peter grabbed her arm as she passed toward the door. "Someone close to you Liv," he muttered "Emotionally or physically. They are going to get to you one way or another."

"Is that a threat Mr. Bishop? Because it's against the law to threaten a federal offi-"

Peter pulls her down until they are eye to eye. "I have absolutely no interest in harming you Olivia." He grinds. "And I have even less interest in returning home without you. SO if you are going to blow me off, at least grant me the courtesy of your watching your ass until I can convince you to change your mind." He let her go and turned back to his drink. "You'll know Liv. Trust that instinct when it hits."

She made a sound of disinterest before storming out of the bar and into the cold Boston night.

XxX

"She'll come." The bald man offered as he sat in front of Peter.

"I need to get you a bell for around your neck." Peter mumbled clutching the remains of his drink in his hands.

The bald man looked at him funny as if to question his statement, but said nothing.

Peter slouched back into the booth, "I don't think she is coming I think she is in so much grief that she can't see past the bottom of a shot glass."

The Observer continued to cast the piercing stare at the half drunk man across from him. "She'll come."

XxX

Olivia threw her keys onto the table by the front door, cringing at the clink when her keys collided with John's.

She wondered for the millionth time if she would ever be ok again. She felt as if the entire world had tilted on its axis and she was now forced to walk on an uncomfortable slant.

Peter Bishop was a problem.

Once she had agreed to meet him, she had Charlie run a check on the name Peter Bishop. What she found made her blood run ice cold.

Peter Bishop had been missing since 1985 when he had been stolen out of his bed. His father, was one of the wealthiest men in the world, and one of its most elusive criminals. Dr. Walter Bishop would pay an amazing amount of money to know what she knew right now. It made her wonder exactly which Peter he was, and if he had any knowledge about the whereabouts of the other one.

Olivia played her messages as she began to pick up from the Repast.

The first was her sister, checking in to see if she had made it home. Rachel and Ella were living near enough to see everyday, but they barely had time for one another. Before she married John, Rachel and Ella had lived with her, but Olivia got the feeling that Rachel didn't like John, or vice versa. She silently cursed herself for letting a man come between her and her family.

Never again, she vowed as she started the dishwasher. Olivia promised herself that her family would come first from here on out.

She was debating whether or not to take out the garbage when she heard it. Olivia was not the sort to debate over completing a job, but the garbage had been John's chore. Somewhere from under her grief, Olivia felt that her assuming this one task was her announcement to herself that John was gone.

It was in these moments of grief versus duty that she heard the voice of her once Mother-in-law.

"Livvy? Honey are you in the kitchen. I came to check on you to make sure you were ok." Footsteps accompanied the voice of Beatrice Scott as she shuffled into the room.

Olivia wasted no time exiting the back door in a brisk run.

XxX

He never expected to see her again. So when she grabbed his arm as he tried to hail a cab outside of the bar Peter nearly turned around swinging.

"I'm coming with you." Olivia ducked Peter's stilted punch.

"Wha?" his addled brain offered.

Olivia shoved him into the waiting cab, looking back over her shoulder she joined him in the back seat. "You were right. I don't know how you knew, or why the hell I feel compelled to trust you. But you were right. My Mother In Law-- that bitch has hated me from day one. No way she would just drop in to see how I was doing."


	3. Chapter 3

The cab left them in a part of Southie that Olivia would not have gone into with backup. She looked around wondering where Peter was leading her when their walk led them into a warehouse that seemed to exist for the sole purpose of cataloging rust dirt and rats.

"Don't worry Liv." Peter smiled that Cheshire cat grin as he led her to the far corner of the abandoned monstrosity. "We're only gonna be here a second."

A tall man in a dark suit appeared to step from the shadows. "You're not gonna dance around and tell me how right you were, are you?" Peter threw at the stranger who seemed to not hear what he said.

"I know you." Olivia advanced upon the man, but Peter drew her back shaking his head

The Observer nodded toward the equipment "You remember what to do?"

"I built it didn't I?" Peter huffed as he began to flip switches. Within seconds, a thin blue light seemed to outline the back wall of the warehouse. "This will put us back in Pennsylvania. I have the Vista Cruiser waiting for us. Hopefully no one stripped it while I was gone."

"Did you set the charges for the disintegration effect?" the Observer questioned.

"You are as bad as Walter. Yes I set everything; there will be no traces of this little trip after I am gone."

"Oh, there will be traces. You know this places you into the game now. Now that they know you can open it too. Its not going to be as easy as you think." With that, he was gone.

Peter took Olivia's hand in his and smiled down at her. "All right Alice, time to jump into the hole."

"You know that makes you The White Rabbit?" she smiled as they walked to the Portal."

Peter felt good for the first time in weeks. "Nah, " he laughed "I am more of the Cheshire Cat. Wait until you meet the Mad Hatter."

XxX

They were lucky, the car was waiting right where Peter left it. Olivia gazed around in the dim sunlight of a late afternoon in March. "It feels different here." She said.

Peter nodded as they got into the car. "Yeh I felt the same way. Funny huh? Its like the air is thicker here."

Peter expected Olivia would be affected by the time slips. He drove around for an hour while she alternately flipped between consciousness and disorientation. At one point he considered hitting her with the syringe of Valium he brought, But he did not trust himself with the dose, nor the recent alcohol in her system could put him right back where he started.

She seemed to be nearing normalcy by the time they made it to CambridgeOlivia cleared her throat before continuing. "It's the Blight, you know? The loss of trees over there. Its been devastating to the overall health of humanity."

Peter felt an uninvited shiver course down his back. "The Blight?" he asked, mentally he began to try and remember seeing any trees that were alive and thriving over there. In fact, he had assumed it was winter. The oak tree he stood under was huge, but gnarled and twisted in a macabre way."Do they know what caused it?"

Olivia shook her head "No, but that was one of the things we were working on tin the Fringe Department. We were trying to find a solution, or at least someone that could help." Olivia looked longingly at the trees as they turned onto the Harvard Campus. "But now, looking at your world, so alive, now I think mine is just dying."

XxX

He wasn't sure where to take her first. It was hard to imagine just dropping her in front of her condo and expecting her to just pick up where she left off. He needed help and the only person who dealt in strange was still holed up in the lab on, what Peter assumed an ongoing bender. The past few weeks had been hard on the whole team. But it was the last five days that were the worst. The last five days had left broken pieces of the team in every corner of the lab.

Peter had left Walter in the care of Astrid. He knew she would be the only person that could help Walter during his drug induced haze.

Olivia wandered around the lab with a familiarity that made Peter believe that things truly may be ok. She picked at relics along the shelves and even stepped over to the stall. "Beaker?" she asked pointing to Gene.

"No, we voted down that name. Astrid and Walter agreed on Gene finally."

"Walter?" Olivia asked a weird look traveled across her face. "Do you mean Walter Bishop?

"Well yeah," Peter had the first inkling of a bad feeling but didn't know how to put the fire out. "Who did you think did all the lab work around here." Peter outstretched his arms to encompass the lab in his meaning.

"William Bell, " she stated flatly.

"Asterlain, we are going to need some more Phenobarbital, I feel an LSD comedown, and it's the only thing that I can take that will stave off the Valium shakes—" Walter Bishop stopped cold dead in his tracks. "Peter." He snapped in accusation.

"Walter." Peter answered folding his arms. He stepped aside to reveal Olivia to the new comers into the lab.

Astrid made a sound that Peter would assume many women made back in the days of corset swooning. She fell back into Water who caught her around her armpits. "Peter.' He spoke with less callousness from his earlier tone, but there was another harsher more frightened tone to his voice. "What have you done?"

"You gonna accuse me some more old man? Or are you gonna help me get Astrid onto the couch so she can wake up."

Once she is situated, Walter advances upon Olivia, but as he gets closer, Olivia backs away. "I didn't know he was here." She mumbled as she made her way to the other side of the lab. Her search for her nonexistent gun would have been funny if it weren't so disturbing.

"Boy, I need to speak with you." Walter fumed still glaring at Olivia. "In private."

"Walter, I am not some five year old that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. " Peter defended. "You are not going to take me out back and what? Put me across your knee?"

Walter graced his son with a look that spoke to exactly what he wanted to do to the man. "This is immoral and wrong and you know it."Walter punctuated his point by thumping his hand onto the arm of the ratty old couch. Astrid moved but did not awake.

"You gonna lecture me about morals? You. The man who once permanently fucked up the heads of six students. Bad enough to have the college have to pay off their families. You, the man who has used the entire globe as his own personal lab rat? You are going to sit here and lecture me about morals when-"

"Peter, you cannot just do as you wish. There are laws, laws of nature that have a tendency to blow up in your face if-"

Olivia noticed the arguing duo had stirred the fainted agent. "Hey guys."

Peter continued in his accusations. "What the hell do you know about nature Walter? Everything you do is completely unnatural, I can't believe you are sitting here telling me what I have done is wrong."

"Boy, you don't know what I know, you don't know what I have seen. You walk around here as if you r life has been so rough. If I hadn't done what I did+" he stammered.

"You sit here and lecture me about right and wrong-"

"Obviously someone needs to, you don't seem to have a grasp-"

"Hey I think-" Olivia tried to get their attention, but the hate had opened on full blast.

"…mental institution for how many years?"

"…petulant child who can't let go of his favorite play toy. She isn't an army man ruined in the dryer Peter."

"Hey, guys I don't mean to break up this happy gathering but I think Astrid is waking up." Astrid sat up and shook her head as she rubbed her eyes. "Olivia?" Astrid's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "How?"

"Are they always like this?" she asked the younger agent as she helped her to her feet.

"Boy, you can't just go and do things like this. There are rules, laws. "

"I had help. There were no mistakes." Peter affirmed. "I made sure to do this the right way." His father's look of disdain affected him in his advanced years more than he would ever admit to anyone. "They were looking for her there. They thought she was her. They were trying to kill her there. If I had not brought her here she would have been killed Walter."

Astrid shook her head and half grinned, "No, this is pretty mild. No doors slamming."

Walter looked over to Olivia again before going on. "Do you know what will happen now?" he roared

"Ok, that's it. Walter the conversation is over. I got her from the other side, yes, but I didn't see you coming up with any other solutions. I was assured she would have the same abilities as Liv. In fact.

Walter held up a hand to halt his son's diatribe. "What you did will come back and bite you on the ass. Peter, you cannot let your heart rule your head. You did this out of love, don't make a mockery of my IQ by trying to convince me this was done out of the greater good. You missed her, as we all did." In an instant Walter's face softened as he turned to look at Olivia. "How are you dear? Did you have a nice trip?"

Olivia looked at Walter in search of what to say. It was Astrid who saved her. "Its good to see you again Olivia."

"Ok, I realize I just got here, but if we could maybe pretend that I know nothing of what is going on I would appreciate it. So in that regard, can someone tell me where 'I' have been then?"

The room grew deathly silent, Peter's hands twitched to hold her before she found out the truth. Would she ever trust him knowing what he did? He was hesitant to tell her, but he knew she deserved to know the truth.

Walter faced his son with a nearly feral grin. He could see the discomfort the question caused Peter. "Well Peter, don't you think you should tell Olivia here what has gone on in the last five days?" He smiled falsely accusation in every syllable. "I think we owe her that much, don't you?"

**So yeah i leave you with a cliffie, and the bad news is it may be a few days before i update, i have a couple of other projects to finish, But, rest assured, i know where this is going, and i have it all in my head, i just have to type it out **


	4. Chapter 4

The lab fell into a crypt like silence. Walter's words seemed to resonate through the lab as if they were nails set into a coffin. Walter glared daggers into his son's eyes just as Peter seemed to find something incredibly remarkable about his shoes.

But even an alternate Olivia could only take so much stalling. "So, anyone?" she asked

Peter made large gawping movements with his mouth before he finally found a voice. "Olivia, I-"

Saved by the bell, or in Peter's case, he had been saved by the Lou Reed ringtone. The heavy timbre that had become physicality in the room momentarily lifted as Peter shucked off to the office to take the phone call. Astrid moved away to one of the tables in the auspices of paperwork, leaving Olivia and Walter facing each other.

"Olivia, whatever you hear, just know that your coming here will end this war. I promise that your trust in peace will not be for nothing."

Olivia offered the scientist a fearful smile as she again began to move away from him. "I realize that you are not the man I know on the other side Dr. Bishop. But you have to understand, you are quite an insane man." She explained

The hearty laugh from the older man nearly sent her running to the door. "Believe me my dear," he chuckled folding his arms "I assure you that I too am quite insane. I would, however, be very interested in what kind of insanity my alter self has been blessed with there. "

Olivia shook her head as if to rid her mind of the imagined atrocities she had become all too familiar with. "Later."

"That was Broyles." Peter entered the main room again looking as if the end of the world was at his heels. Olivia, I think it is time you got your answers, but I think I should show you rather than try to give you some long winded tale." He guided her to the door before shouting over his shoulder. "Hey Astrid, I know you have been-"

"Yeah" she waved without even looking up. "I'm on it. "

Peter mumbled something about the woman being the first person canonized while still alive before leading Olivia out.

XxX

"So where are we going?" Olivia asked as Peter drove her through the streets of midtown Boston.

"Well, I just got a call from Broyles."

My boss?" Olivia filled in.

"Yes. He is expecting to see you in his office in an hour. I need to get you to the house and then to his office." Peter parked in front of a Victorian style home, light green clapboard that screamed Academic.

"I live here?" she asked a little surprised at the style.

Peter again nodded as he opened the front door with his keys. "Yeah, you live here."

Olivia barely got a look at the furnishings before she was ushered upstairs into the master bathroom. "I'll bring you some clothes," he offered before closing the door. Olivia removed her clothing and stepped into the shower. The day had been strange, but there was something about being here that felt, right. The last three years she had spent married to the love of her life. When he died last week, Olivia had considered eating her own gun. She even woke up one morning in the front seat of her car, bottle of jack and gun on the passenger seat. Thursday had been a bad day. By Friday she had put together a funeral and Saturday night she had left with the mysterious man.

The hot water sluiced over her body, erasing the strain that dimensional travel had caused her. She had not expected were the tears that seemed to burn hotter on her face than the water. She missed John, and could not deny that part of her agreement to come here was to escape the reality of being a widow.

The cold air announced Peter's entrance. "Sorry," he muttered before quickly leaving again. By the time she had examined the contents of the medicine cabinet she was certain that this world's Olivia shared this house with at least one Bishop.

XxX

"So how long have the two of you been together: she asked after emerging from the bathroom in a pantsuit she never would wear.

Peter smiled back at her. "About six months. She got me through a difficult time, and I thought we would never be together after that. But, Olivia is a remarkable woman." The look on his face spoke volumes about the feeling s he harbored for his Olivia. "She wouldn't let me shut her out. Everywhere I ran she was there, nipping at my heels like some rabid Pomeranian. Yipping and bitching about how no matter what she needed me by her side." Peter grabbed the keys off the table by the door and handed her a

Olivia felt a passing stir of jealousy for this woman she never was. He spoke of her the way John once did for her. Their marriage was not an ideal one, but she loved him, and she believed that he loved her.

By the time they made it into the car, Olivia felt a renewed interest in the truth. "So what did happen to her? Why am I here and she isn't?"

Peter made that pained face again before speaking. "I know you want answers Olivia, and I know the you here enough to know that I can't put off the truth from you for too long. When we first met, you asked me to accept some things without question, to trust you . I am asking you to trust me Olivia. I will tell you everything, but I think its better to show you."

Olivia nodded, not sure if she trusted him but realizing her mere presence in this alternate reality proved her initial trust in him, "So, I am assuming that Broyles does not know about my…"

"No," Peter's tone was humorless, yet he chuckled just the same. "Broyles doesn't know half the shit that has gone on in that lab, and I have no idea how much he would understand even if he did know."

"So, it happened at the lab then?" Olivia did not need to expound on the it, peters nod supplied the unspoken assurance of her doppelganger's fate.

"We uh, we will get to that ok?" Peter asked as they parked in the garage of the Boston Federal building.

XxX

Broyles office was both the same and different from what she was used to. His desk still held discreet photos of his children, but it resided on the opposite side of the office. Olivia steeled her reaction to the subtle difference as they approached the desk.

"You're looking far better than the last time I saw you Dunham. I am assuming that the week off agreed with you." Olivia smiled to see that this Broyles hated pulling pinches as well.

"I think Olivia could do with another week of vacation." Peter offered from his perch by the window.

The look Broyles passed to Peter could have skinned the younger man where he stood. Turning his attention back to his agent he made a small gesture with is head. "Since when do you need a handler, Dunham?"

"Since you sent her on that fucked up case two weeks ago." Peter shot back

"Peter," Olivia offered him her own withering look before turning back to her boss "with all due respect Sir, I could use a few more days off."

This isn't like you Dunham, is there something I should know?" Broyles flashed between the two.

Olivia shook her head before answering; "we both know how hard this last case has been Sir. You yourself have said before that I need to take some time off to regroup."

"Be back here Thursday Dunham. No more excuses. "he gave her a knowing look before continuing. "And leave your sitter at home."


	5. Chapter 5

**So i wanted to put up another chapter, i told you its all in my heag i just gotta fight with the other voices to release it.**

**they were extraordinarily reasonable today**

**Thank you to all of you who reviewed, fave'd and threatened. You are all the reason this is out so quick.**

**Oh and Oranfly..**

**TAG, YOU'RE IT!  
**

She didn't realize she was tired until she fell across the bed in the master bedroom of the Bishop home. After feeding her drive thru bingo, Peter dropped her at home and sped off to the lab.

It was that disoriented awakening that left her momentarily frozen in fear. The moment between dream and consciousness is a frightening place when you wake up in a strange bed, in a strange room, in a strange world. The room was dark and Olivia made out strange noises coming from downstairs.

Someone had removed her shoes and jacket and tucked her into the bed. She smiled at the care these near strangers seemed to take with her well being.

Tentative steps across the floor to the dresser led her to far more comfortable clothes, and the smell of something enticing led her down the stairs.

"Olivia. Did you sleep well my dear?" Walter, clad in apron, stirred something on the stove, "I will have dinner for you in a few minutes." He offered her a genuine smile that Olivia could not help but return.

She sat at the small kitchen table after her offer of help was met with a polite refusal. Olivia could not help but begin to feel comfortable around this strange new version of Walter Bishop. "Where's Peter?" she asked.

For a moment, Walter's face made what could only be described as an emotional hiccup before he smiled again and answered. "He had some work to do, at the lab .He will be back before too long."

She silently ate the food placed before her. Walter stood at the sink washing dishes. For a moment, Olivia caught a glimpse of some skewed family moment, but it dissolved once Walter spoke again.

"So you mentioned my other self. I have decided to refer to him as Walternate. Tell me, what is he like?" Walter asked in a carefree manner, as if they were discussing a long unseen acquaintance rather than some other worldly version of himself.

"He uh. He lost his son long ago. Most people says its what led to his insanity. But he is an extremely powerful man. He owns probably the largest company in the..in our world." Olivia again noticed the weird facial tick from Walter, but it disappeared again before she could analyze it

"So he has no children then?" Walter asked nonchalantly.

Olivia gave a wry smile "Uh, not really. In fact its believed he has children all over the country. He is a wanted man in about twenty countries. He has been in illegal dealings since the late seventies. In fact, he has been on the FBI most wanted list for most of the past ten years. Five of those at number one."

"Oh," Walter insisted. "Oh Dear." He fumbled around the sink and began to put everything away. "I suppose losing someone you love, especially a child, could in fact be a cause for insanity."

"Seems to be a family trait around the Bishop house." She huffed, folding her hands and tucking herself in further.

Walter eased himself into the chair across from her and once again grew pensive. "He loves her very much. You must understand Olivia; he was not the kind of person who grew attachments. When she came along it was as if he had been thrown a life preserver." Walter twisted his hands as he spoke. "I will not pretend to be happy about his recent choices, but I know a little something about doing extreme things in the name of love. "

Olivia slid further into their chair and folded her arms in apprehension, yet she found her head nodded in understanding.

"When Olivia got hurt, it was…devastating, for Peter, for all of us. "

"Walter, why is this such a mystery? What happened to Olivia here?" Olivia did not mean to frighten the older man, but the thought of wearing a dead woman's clothing was becoming very distasteful.

"If you really want to know Olivia, get your coat, let's go." Peter turned on his heel and left as silently as he had entered.

XxX

They drove to the lab in silence. Olivia could tell that Peter was fighting with his own emotions the whole ride over. By the time they arrived at the Kresge building, Olivia was in honest fear for this stranger. His hands shook as he opened the lab doors, he nearly fell walking down the small flight of stairs. Olivia followed him to the back of the lab, a part she had not seen earlier that morning. It was a section that her own team had used for storage.

The doors were locked to the back storage room. Peter dug out a separate set of keys and stopped. His head dropped, and his shoulders slumped. "I don't want you to think that this is something I would normally do Olivia. " he spoke to the locked door, as if he could not meet her in the eye. For a second, Olivia had to determine whether he was speaking to her, or the Olivia she assumed was behind the door.

"I need to tell you that when she asked me to help her, I thought I could do it. It looked so easy when Walter put her in the tank. She begged him but he said it was too dangerous. The one time I should have listened to my father…" his voice trailed off, punctuated by his hand slamming into the hard metal door.

Peter continued on like he did not feel the obvious pain. "I love her so much, I have a hard time telling her no. But we both knew that this case needed to be solved. She knew that getting in this time was dangerous, she knew that if she made a connection with the mind of a mad man she could come out mad herself."

Suddenly, as if his batteries got switched for new ones, Peter righted himself and quickly opened the heavy metal door. He turned to Olivia and took her hand, with the other he made the universal symbol for silence.

The room itself was decorated like her own bedroom back at home. From the corner of the other room, Olivia could see that the bed even held the same comforters and amount of pillows on it. Furnishings and books matched her room in an eerie manner. Even the order of the books. A small bathroom faced the back wall and the basement sized windows offered no escape for whatever occupant resided in the cell.

"Stay here." Peter commanded as he pointed to a plush green chair.

Olivia sat down and tried to look around the room to see where the occupant may be hiding.

She heard Peter speak in a gentle soothing tone "Olivia? Honey why are you sleeping on the floor?" A shuffling sound then "Come on, get on the bed. C'mon Livvy. OW! Please don't bite me please Olivia, you know I love you."

Olivia heard the bed squeak and a sort of feral growl that nearly made her run for her life to the nearest portal back to her own fucked up life. Whatever was wrong with this version of herself made her scared, the idea that something like this could have happened to her, had she ever been stupid enough to take William Bell up on his offer to get into the tank.

Fuck That.

Peter reemerged into the smaller room. "I got her sedated enough to take down three Walters." He smiled humorlessly. "Come on."


	6. Chapter 6

**SO we are about at the halfway point here, or at leat that is what the voices are telling me.  
**

**Thanks to all who have reviewed, fave'd and threatened. the voices especially respond to the threats, they are so twisted**

**Sorry about the delay, but RL is a horrible bitchgoddess. I will try not to keep you all waiting again like that, i hate waiting too.**

Her first inclination was to shake her head, vehemently, and run like hell out of this place. He was standing there fully expecting her to go in there and hold communion with her far crazier self.

Her first inclination was beaten and subdued by her curiosity.

Olivia lay on the bed, breaths in small shallow tufts. Peter guided her to the foot of the bed that held her alter. "She's like a feral cat most of the time. In between being drugged to the gills, and foaming bouts of insanity, she has the moments of lucidity that are heart breaking." He moved to his Olivia's head and gently moved her jagged hair away from her face.

"Is she always going to be like this?" Olivia asked as she watched Peter tend to his lover.

Something passed before the man's eyes, and again Olivia was reminded of the look that she first caught on Walter's face. "She, uh, she needs to be fixed." Peter turned his grey green eyes to her as he spoke. "This is why I brought you here Olivia, to help her, to help Livvy come back," the 'to me,' was never spoken aloud, but Olivia heard the words as if they were bellowed in her ear.

"I don't understand, Peter. How can I help this situation. No offense, but it would seem that Olivia has crossed the threshold of sanity and is in serious danger of breeching terminal insanity." She pointed to the fresh bite on his arm, the angry purple bruise had risen around the horrible welt. "How can I help her come back from this?"

Peter kissed Livvy's hand before tucking her arm back against her still frame. "the same way she got this way Olivia. " he turned to look at her. "I realize that there is no cure for insanity, but since Livvy was never really insane Walter thinks that if you can share consciousness with her, you can bring her through the fog. "

A moan escaped the still woman. Her eyes fluttered open as her gaze focused upon Peter." Hey you." she sang sweetly.

Peter's entire face lit up, but the joy did not reach his eyes. His eyes remained in a hard stern glare, as if ready for anything the insane woman would throw his way, "hey Livvy, how are you feeling?"

Olivia began to feel like an intruder into this conversation, but she felt compelled to stay. It worried her that Livvy was so unstable, and she knew there was no way she would be leaving Peter alone with this insane version of herself.

Livvy looked around the room and locked eyes with the woman at the foot of the bed. Olivia watched the woman's eyes grow round and large before the screaming began. "Go," Peter insisted, dropping Olivia's hand and pushing her toward the door. "Go into the lab. I will be out in a minute. "

Olivia stood her ground. "Are you going to be all right in here with—"

But Peter had already managed her out of the door, and closed it behind her.

XxX

He emerged from the back after ten minutes, fresh scratches on his cheeks. Peter stormed past her to the office on the side. Bu the time she caught up to him he had downed the equivalence of three shots of whiskey straight from the bottle. "I should have known better than drag you in there.' He fumed to Jack Daniels. "I should have known that seeing you would set her off."

Olivia shook her head. "No Peter. I should not have insisted on knowing…"

A mirthless laugh passed from the half drunken man. "You have every right to know Olivia." He blared. "I dragged you here for your help, without telling you what for. I get you here; throw you into this insanity…"

"You saved my life Peter" Olivia insisted.

He stopped in his tracks then, realization dawning on his face. "Oh god, the shape shifters, they know." Horror dawned on his face. "Olivia, you're in more danger than I thought. I think—I think I may have screwed up bad on this one." This realization was further punctuated with a drag from the bottle that Olivia was sure as an attempt to literally drown in the brown fluid.

"Peter," she began coming closer to him, "I don't understand this.. What do you mean you may have screwed up? When you first met me at the cemetery you promised me that I could help end this I want to end this Peter. John didn't die in a car crash, in fact I am sure that he died working against this very real threat. Your side..." Her admission had been hard to vocalize, but the proof had been there. It was the information that had led her to sit in her car that Wednesday night after John died. Pictures that had found their way to her front step after spending all night in the hospital making arrangements for his body.

"The shape shifters, from your side. Olivia, they were coming to kill you because they thought you were my Olivia." Peter began his rapid pacing again. "The last time you..she went over there, they sent a hit man for her. They assumed she had gone over again. But I think somehow they realized what really happened. Somehow they discovered that we were looking for you."

"They have been more vigilant in their attempts to win this thing. I had no idea that they would have known she wasn't available. In fact, I have no idea how they could have known." Peter's pacing had become more insistent, more erratic, Olivia feared he may have himself crossed into insanity/ except she knew all about the shape shifters. She knew more than she would have wanted to. "They know because Walter here knows.'

Peter stopped in his tracks, fear mounting behind his clouded gaze "It all makes sense now. We have been so fucking stupid this whole time, thinking that. "Of course. " he flailed. :It just like Mosely from Seattle." He began rifling through files atop the ancient desk.

"I'm not familiar with him, but I do n=know that the same technology that put your Olivia in that room, the same technology you want to use to save her, is extremely similar to the very way that Walter on my side has gained access to what goes on here."

Peter continued flipping through files, gathering a stack. "they would have killed you to keep her from coming back. She is important to this side."

Olivia sat in the desk chair, hands primly folded in her lap. She knew there was more to the story, and waited

'Back when she was three, Olivia was involved in these trials, trials run by Walter over here.' Peter passed her the file on Cortexiphan. "See, this drug supposedly gave her and a bunch of other kids special abilities. They were supposed to be able to stop the c=onset of limitations in adulthood. "

"I don't think there has been anything like this on my side. In fact any drug trials that Walter would have run would have been more than illegal. Walter Bishop on our side is a wanted man, while he may not have done anything like this, at least nothing that we have come across yet he still has been involved in some seriously nefarious dealings. I would not be surprised if there were far worse things he is responsible for." Olivia's attention to the documents caused her to miss the quizzical look on Peter's face.

"It doesn't surprise me that he would be a criminal over there. " Peter n=sneered. "He has done some pretty awful things here. " Peter sighed and looked across the room. "I can only wonder at the differences there as opposed to here. What separate paths lead to where."

Olivia looked at Peter from over the files in her hand. She wondered at telling him he was more than likely dead on her side. "He lost his son early on. It made him a little nuts. "

Peter only nodded in affirmation, grabbing his keys and coat off of the desk. "I am going to go check on her for the night, and then we can head back to the house, ok": he tossed over his shoulder.


End file.
